You have passed all of the interviews, gotten into a company and they have assigned you to a project.
What now?
In this article, we will try to give you a few tips on how to adapt to your first project.
- Research what are you working on
Nobody expects that you will enter the project today and start doing heavy tasks the same day. Take your time to make yourself familiar with the project.
If it is some kind of application, just enter it as a regular user and start using that application. Look at what it does and how it works. You might even find some things that need changing or that could be made better.
Once you've seen the project as an ordinary user, start looking at the code. Doesn't matter if you are a backend or frontend developer, the basic principle is the same.
Start from the index file and see how things work around. Look at the coding style as it will be especially important. Again, while doing this you might find some things that need changing or that could be made differently.
But don't change them yet...
2. Ask questions and listen
You will start attending daily/weekly meetings. Nobody expects that you do much talking, but you should listen and ask questions. Ask some of your colleagues to walk you through the project. Ask as many questions as you possibly can think of and, if necessary, take notes.
This would be a good time to mention those things you saw while exploring applications that should be changed.
3. Tasks and tickets
As mentioned in number 1, nobody expects you to do heavy tasks and tickets first few weeks. However, you shouldn't do nothing.
You will be assigned some tickets and you should resolve them, but take your time while doing it. It is better to be slow than to be destructive.
Again, ask questions, it is better to be boring than to cause damage.